“Work with Fighters of Non-Russian Nationality Was Underestimated...”: The Leadership of the Military-Political Bodies of the Red Army and the National Question During the Great Patriotic War

Introduction. In the initial period of the Great Patriotic War, 1.15 million citizens of non-Russian nationality were drafted into the Red Army. By the beginning of the war, the political bodies of the Red Army responsible for political and educational work with personnel did not have the necessary staff and competencies to organize such work. Much depended on the timeliness and accuracy of the decisions of the heads of the militarypolitical department. Methods and materials. The research uses general scientific methods as well as historicalsystemic, historical-genetic, and comparative-historical. The source base is based on published and archival materials concerning the activities of L.Z. Mehlis and A.S. Shcherbakov as head of the Main Political Directorate of the Red Army. Analysis. During the Great Patriotic War, the ideological front of work in the Soviet troops was consistently led by two people: L.Z. Mehlis (1941–1942) and A.S. Shcherbakov (1943–1945). One of the obvious challenges they faced was the national problem, which was expressed in the difficult adaptation of a large flow of non-Russian military personnel in a combat situation and the ignorance of the Russian language by many. A direct consequence of this was the low combat capability of military formations manned by non-Russian servicemen, high combat losses and failure to fulfill combat tasks set by the command. The main Political Directorate of the Red Army turned out to be unprepared for the aggravation of the national issue. The choice of management strategies in solving the national issue in the warring army was up to the head of the department. The results of the analysis of sources presented in the article show that the views on national problems in the ranks of the troops of L.Z. Mehlis and A.S. Shcherbakov differed significantly. The article analyzes the measures that both managers took to solve the problems. Results. The conducted research has shown the effectiveness of the leadership line chosen by A.S. Shcherbakov for the adaptation of representatives of the peoples of the Caucasus and Central Asia to military service. Together with objective factors (a favorable strategic situation and a reduction in the representation of these peoples in the army), it led to the fact that by the end of the war the national problem had largely lost its relevance. Funding. The article was prepared within the framework of a grant provided by the Ministry of Science and Higher Education of the Russian Federation (Agreement No. 075-15-2024-537).